Question

1.Criminal and civil court cases are different. Consider these two business cases.

(i) Civil- In the Liebeck v. McDonald’s case, a woman sued McDonald’s for serving hot coffee. The woman spilled hot coffee on her lap while trying to add cream and sugar. The woman sued McDonald’s for negligence, in a civil suit. The issue centered on whether or not the coffee’s specific temperature was unreasonably hot. McDonald’s lost the lawsuit. The compensatory verdict was $160,000. McDonald’s was found liable.

(II)Criminal-In 2017, Oliver Schmidt, former manager of a VW engineering office near Detroit, was arrested. He faced years in prison for attempts to defraud the United States, wire fraud, violation of the Clean Air Act, and a charge of giving an untrue statement under the Clean Air Act. Schmidt’s actions directly violated a business law and, since his actions violated an established law, he was held criminally liable. In December of 2017, Schmidt was sentenced to seven years in prison.

so now the question is: One with a criminal case and one with a civil case. Do you believe that businesses should be charged both civilly and criminally? Or should they be charged in one way, but not the other? Explain your answer.

2.Civil suits arise from damages suffered at the hands of others. It can be an individual, or based on a company mistake. The damage can be the result of intentional or unintentional acts. Think about an event that has been in the news. Describe your chosen event and explain what type of civil suit should occur. Discuss what standard it would rely upon and how you would rule on it.

3.Many countries have adopted the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) as their common legal code governing sales contracts. The United States, however, continues to use the Uniform Commercial Code. This means that different sets of rules apply in different sales circumstances. When the parties entering into the sales contract are both from the United States, the UCC applies. However, if one party is international, the CISG applies. Although many of the topics covered in CISG and the UCC are the same, there are some differences. For example, the CISG does not require sales contracts to be in writing, and the CISG’s provisions follow the mirror image rule. a)What factors account for differences between the CISG and the UCC? b)What are the implications of these differences between the CISG and the UCC? c)Do you think the United States should adopt the CISG? Why? Why not?

4.Is FMLA effective? Why or why not? What are the implications of FMLA for firms? Do you think the United States should implement paid family and medical leave legislation? What should such legislation look like?

5. How does the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives impacts the community and citizens on a regular basis.Describe the agency’s responsibilities in the discussion. Explain how it impacts society on a regular basis.

Answer 1

I believe businesses should be charged only on account of one uniform act and not under various acts. This is important to ensure all terms, conditions, clauses and scenarios are covered under one act which could be called company's liability act. This would ensure that there is no ambiguity in terms of understanding their responsibilities or liabilities for the company. Also, on the part of the customers and other bodies it would be clear as to what comprises or not comprises a violation of the law in a particular scenario. This would also discourage unnecessary lawsuits and wastage of precious time of the courts.

The civil matters in some exceptional scenarios should then be directed towards the local franchise of the business and not towards the entire company. In grave situations as the one highlighted above (temperature of coffee being too high , leading to severe burn to the lady) company could be held responsible and e legal recourse could be taken accordingly.